Best Director
This is an award that SHOULD be going to Ben Affleck for Argo. But that's neither here nor there (yet... do read on). This is an award that I would rather see go to David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook) or Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild). But since Affleck isn't nominated (!), Spielberg will probably take home his third Oscar in the category. I don't mean to take away from Spielberg by naming three other directors that I'd rather take the honor, as his work on Lincoln was exemplary, but that's how I feel. Ang Lee winning for Life of Pi wouldn't surprise me too much, either, as that film certainly was something to see.
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
This category is so much of a landslide that I actually had to look up who else was nominated as a refresher to write this (for reference: Field, Adams, Hunt, Weaver). I would be absolutely floored if Hathaway doesn't take the award home. IF there is an upset, I'll go on a limb and say it'd be Amy Adams (The Master). Or Sally Field (Lincoln). Actually, Field would probably be more likely, but Adams would be the better choice.
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
De Niro is, literally, my third different pick for this award.... and I haven't filled out my pool picks for the Oscar party I'm attending tonight. At first I figured Tommy Lee Jones was going to ride the Lincoln wave, but the Lincoln wave has seemed to subside. Then I thought Django Unchained's Christoph Waltz would take it, as he was the only one to really show me something new in the category, but then my attention was brought to De Niro. All of the nominees in this category are former winners, but De Niro hasn't won since 1981. So, I'm making that my tie breaker. When I fill out my pool later, Philip Seymour Hoffman from The Master may well be my pick. I'm so indecisive with this category! And to round it out, the last time Alan Arkin received an Oscar nomination, people questioned how that happened... and he won. People are questioning how he got one this year, too...
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Daniel Day Lewis, Lincoln
I wish I could write Hugh Jackman here... but his at times shaky vocals in Les Misérables quite likely will be his undoing. DDL, however, was spot on 100% of the time in Lincoln, so I'd really be quite surprised to see anyone else winning this one.
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
This is a category where I had to make a very tough call. Lawrence was spectacular, Jessica Chastain was spectacular in Zero Dark Thirty, Quvenzhane Wallis was spectacular in Beasts of the Southern Wild, and I hear Emmanuelle Riva and Naomi Watts were spectacular in Amour and The Impossible, respectively. Lawrence, however, is the "it" actress at the moment, lining up big gig after big gig, and starring in two huge franchises on top of them. I assume that means she is as well loved around Hollywood as I love her. So, she's my pick.
Best Picture
Argo
I really, really loved Argo. I would indeed say that it was my favorite of all the films nominated this season, by a healthy margin, actually. But, I would say this award is due to the Academy's politics almost as much as it is about how fantastic the film really is. I'm not going to speculate as to why Ben Affleck wasn't nominated for Best Director, because obviously, I have no idea. Snubs are often largely treated with a "we're sorry for you", but then a shrug... but it hasn't seemed like that has happened with Affleck's snub. In fact, it really seems to me that Hollywood has rallied around Affleck and the film, as evidenced by the film winning every single major Best Picture award so far (or, the equivalent of it), and Affleck all the Best Director awards. In any other year, I would actually pick Zero Dark Thirty for top honors due to it's timeliness as much as it's content, but this is Argo's year.
Final timmmc.com Oscar Watch 2012 Rankings
With all my reviews so far, I've added a star system. These were done arbitrarily and not really relative to anything. Here's that ranking:
5 stars: Argo
4.5 stars: Zero Dark Thirty, Looper
4 stars: Beasts of the Southern Wild, Silver Linings Playbook, Moonrise Kingdom, The Dark Knight Rises, Les Misérables, Skyfall, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
2.5 stars: The Master
Obviously, not really relative to each other. I'm not going to rank ALL the movies I watched for this year's project, but I did rank the Best Picture nominees (save for Amour), so I'll share that:
- Argo
- Zero Dark Thirty
- Silver Linings Playbook
- Les Misérables
- Beasts of the Southern Wild
- Django Unchained
- Lincoln
- The Life of Pi
And with that, #OW12 is officially completed. As I've written before... I absolutely love it. I already look forward to #OW13!
